<aside> 💡 Help define your state’s best approach to using service to address climate change

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The first question to consider when narrowing the focus of your design is: How do you approach climate change? As described in previous sections, there are a multitude of ways climate change will impact people, communities, and ecosystems, and those impacts are changing rapidly. As you define a strategy, you want to evaluate what climate risks and responses you will address through service.

Such considerations should generally take into account the following:

The degree of focus on mitigation (greenhouse gas reductions) versus adaptation or resilience
Whether to emphasize community or climate impacts
How to coordinate or align with any state or national programs, resources, and goals
How to capture service outcomes across diverse activities (i.e., attribution of impact from service to outcome)

This last point is important because the topic of climate change is so complex that the macro impacts can be elusive to service programs but focusing too narrowly on very discrete activities might overlook important community benefit opportunities.

Once you have defined the approach to climate, the next step is to examine how to operationalize this approach through service and determine the appropriate roles for members to advance it. As seen in the program examples, there are many ways to address climate change through service. This examination is likely to surface a range of service strategies from direct service to capacity building. Additionally, since climate change is often not well understood in communities, programs may want to consider mixed service models that allow AmeriCorps members to support engagement and education alongside their service activities. Some service activity choices may be defined by local environmental conditions (i.e., flooding versus wildfire), while others might be influenced by resources and state priorities (i.e., community engagement versus implementation). Notably, it may be important to consider how to align service with existing climate action stakeholders and networks who may not be familiar with national service. For example, local governments have significant responsibilities for climate program implementation but are less often partners in AmeriCorps.

This stage can be the time to draft an initial theory of change or logic model to begin to articulate a description of what members will do and what impact this will have on the community. Outlining program elements (from training to activities to outputs/outcomes) can help move from the abstract to the concrete and can surface key design questions that were not as visible before putting down specific roles, activities, and desired outcomes.

Central to any program design is the AmeriCorps member experience and how a service program builds leadership for participants. With climate change increasingly relevant to so many fields and communities, it’s important to ground the AmeriCorps member's experience in an understanding of both the issues and the impacts. For many young people, climate change is a particularly pressing issue, so we have found climate focused service programs to be strong from a recruitment perspective. At the same time, it can be valuable to consider the potentially overwhelming nature of climate change for service members, so it’s important to have a strong community and member support structure. Finally, related to equity considerations, it is essential to assess how recruitment and member support will advance inclusive participation.

Climate change is affecting everyone, but not equally. The impacts of climate change are being felt more acutely, and the risks can be more significant to the same communities who have often faced disinvestment and marginalization historically. A fairly common principle in climate work is to consider how investments and programming will address disproportionate climate vulnerabilities. This consideration can influence a strategy in various ways such as program design (Who are the beneficiaries? What metrics are used to determine need?), selection of sites (Who can host AmeriCorps members, where, and for what?), definition of member roles (Is addressing inequity central or peripheral to service activities?), and support for members (outreach to diverse networks for recruitment, support for members from diverse backgrounds).